The Sweetest Grapes are Closest to the Vine
This spring when I planted my garden, I included some pumpkins for my husband. Typically, I try to avoid plants with vines, because they tend…
Jesus
In today’s parable, Jesus is in the middle of teaching his disciples one last time. He is only days away from his crucifixion in Jerusalem,…
Faithful. Kind. #UMCGC
This afternoon, as General Conference opened with worship, I was moved by the many first languages echoing through our space… One audible witness to the…
Renegade Gospel: The Red-Letter Rebel
There was a challenge issued TWICE by Mike Slaughter in chapter one of this Renegade Gospel book we are examining during this Lenten season: to…
Returning from Thin Places
There are places in this world that are “thin.” It is a label given to places, in the Celtic understanding, where the barrier between the…
Practicing Our Religion in Public
By some accounts, yesterday morning I did exactly the opposite of what Jesus tells us in Matthew. Some of us gathered at a local coffee…
Thankful Giving
In our gospel reading this morning, we meet Zacchaeus, that “wee-little man”, who was really a terrible, awful person. As Carol Howard Merritt describes him:…
Hungry?
Yesterday, I preached on Jesus and the fig tree. It is such a strange pericope (aka story). Both Matthew and Mark tell us (Matthew 21…